How to establish successful business relations with Chinese partners

The four pillars of establishing successful business relations in China include – in addition to intensive market exploration as well as expert tax and legal consulting – the profound knowledge and awareness of the intercultural behavior of our Chinese partners that often tends to strike us as being odd and unfamiliar to us.

If one really wants to understand “China“, however, one needs to find out what Chinese people think and what they have on their minds, instead of speculating on - from a western point of view - what Chinese people might be up to. My seminars and presentations are designed to provide you with exactly these valuable insights.

Intercultural communication as a key factor for your China business

Communication carried out in a person’s native language ensures the maximum amount and depth of information are conveyed, received, understood and remembered afterwards. It may sound strange to us that for Chinese people even saying nothing and remaining silent in a talk or negotiation is in fact a tool and means of communication, whereas for Germans keeping quiet is often unbearable.

In lack of clear agreements regarding an issue, Germans and Chinese tend to have completely different ideas on the subject matter concerned and will consequently act in ways that are quite incomprehensible to the respective other party.
Each receiver of a piece of communication is also a multiplier – with positive or negative effects.
What to do when your interpreter is left speechless?

How to lead successful contract negotiations

In Chinese business culture, contracts concluded between two parties are considered rather a descriptive outline of the joint interests of the parties than a strictly binding agreement and may thus be subject to quite flexible interpretation in the course of the business relationship. The “spirit“ of a negotiation is thus by far more important than the written word. Personal relationships between the partners count more than a piece of writing.

Contracts are not considered the end-product of a negotiation but rather an “interim result” of a business relationship deemed to be a living thing and likely to grow. This means that for your Chinese partners written agreements may often count less than an arrangement made between friends. It is thus worth the time and effort to establish and maintain amicable relations with your Chinese partners rather than spending too much of your energy on the pedantic wording of contracts.

How to recruit + retain staff and how to unfold their creativity

German chief executives often make the mistake of not showing up too frequently on the shop floor and in the offices of their employees to see how they are doing and to establish a personal relationship with them. In China, however, showing an interest in one‘s employees is important, which also means knowing and addressing them by their names.

One of the prime goals of an experienced and multi-culturally competent manager is to gain the loyalty of their Chinese staff. The only way to be successful in this is to do it “the Chinese way“.

How to act and behave in China

If one really wants to understand China and the Chinese ways of thinking and acting, one needs to let go of one’s speculative ideas in this respect coined by western thinking and take a close look at what really matters in China. One element to bear in mind here is to realize that your Chinese business partners and employees expect you as an executive to demonstrate intercultural awareness and to know how to act in a multicultural setting.

Conduct and behaviour displayed by politicians and business people from the Western world are considered indicative and interpreted in terms of their personal (inner) strength and attitude towards China.
Every person grows up in a specific environment that leaves a strong and lasting imprint on them. This is why there are many behavioural characteristics that seem “natural and congenital” to us, but that appear quite odd and strange to people of a different culture.